Goals and Objectives of ITS

As a large organization with multiple responsibilities to the college, IT services has organized our objectives
into four large thematic areas related to support, infrastructure, relationships and working environment. The
four goals directly relate to our mission of excellence in service and our values of integrity, competence
and collaboration.

Provide exceptional support for technology users at the college.

As the name implies and mission statement reinforces, the core purpose of IT Services is to
provide exceptional service to all members of the college community.Objectives within this goal...

1.A. Continually improve resolution times for technology issues.

Technology is not foolproof, and systems regularly fail. How quickly, effectively and completely we respond to a large extent determines how quickly all members of the campus community can resume working on their primary duties. In addition, the primary influence on the perception of our service levels is the timeliness of our response. IT services will strive to minimize our response time and maximize user satisfaction levels by tracking, analyzing and continually striving to improve the time it takes to solve technology issues for our users.

1.B. Help departments create a powerful electronic presence that enhances learning and promotes the college.

Every department on campus has some type of electronic presence: in some cases, this presence is a marketing function, such as our admissions information; in others, it is information for internal users such as our IT services site; still others have a mix such as academic departments which need to serve both a marketing function and internal information function. IT services needs to support all of these electronic presence functions and help the college community fully leverage electronic information presentation.

1.C. Provide a comprehensive technology training program.

As technology changes, it grows increasingly onerous for faculty and staff to learn the new interfaces and options offered through software updates. At the same time, retaining currency with technology requires updates and new software deployments. IT services needs to have a training program which helps alleviate the transition to new interfaces and new software packages as they are deployed to our user community.

Periodic maintenance requires that IT occasionally upgrade various software and hardware components of our IT infrastructure. No member of the college community should be taken by surprise when a service is down for regular maintenance. As we deploy new products and services, it is imperative that we communicate changes in services to the college community. As the volume of e-mail keeps increasing, and as fewer and fewer students read e-mail on a regular basis, it is critically important that IT finds better ways to communicate with our user community.

1.E. Promote discovery and development by faculty, staff and students.

As IT has permeated every aspect of college operations, it is no longer possible for IT services to be a domain expert in all areas where IT is heavily used. We do not have the domain expertise to know the best software for scientific instruments, or what type of system best supports heating plant operations. By promoting discovery and development efforts by all members of the college community, we can combine domain expertise from other departments with IT expertise within our staff to build a more useful set of IT services for our users.

1.F. Help leverage information technology to improve college operations.

Information technology affects almost every aspect of college operations, and new technology solutions are continually developed which have the potential of significantly improving the productivity of operations across every division of the college. IT services needs to identify these opportunities and present them to our users for potential implementation within their respective department or division.

1.G. Embrace and evaluate emerging technology within IT.

Experimenting with new technology and forming collaborative development partnerships with our users is fundamental to our IT services mission, but experimental projects and new software development are both risky endeavors. These types of projects frequently experience technology failures or have usability issues which affect user work. Deploying these types of project to IT staff places the burden of resolving these issues on the people best equipped to both understand what is going wrong and resolve issues before they impact college operations.

Create and support a robust IT environment for the college.

As important as the service to the college is the infrastructure used to provide IT. From the networks
to large application servers, SUNY Oneonta is increasingly relying on IT, and it is our responsibility to keep
the systems, networks and software applications running smoothly.Objectives within this goal...

2.A. Provide a current and reliable IT infrastructure for the needs of the college.

The technology infrastructure of the college is constantly evolving as the spectrum of technology used by our constituents evolves. Our infrastructure must evolve as well, and we need to maintain current systems and connectivity for all users at the college. This goal necessarily spans all aspects of IT, from the fiber optic lines connecting buildings to user desktop, laptop and mobile devices.

2.B. Ensure the security, confidentiality, integrity and availability of college-hosted data and systems.

The college maintains a variety of data related to students, faculty and staff which is protected by federal law. Furthermore, many college operations ranging from first-year experience through alumni relations depends on the accuracy and availability of data maintained by IT services, including examples such as our student information system, learning management system, event management system and many other similar IT initiatives. IT must ensure that this data is maintained properly and available for legitimate college needs while ensuring that we maintain the privacy of the data.

Create and enhance IT partnerships that are beneficial to the college.

IT relies on partnerships with the faculty, staff and students of the college to ensure
that IT operations meet their computing needs. Coupling our technology expertise with the domain and use
expertiese of our client groups allows us to effectively plan and develop IT services.Objectives within this goal...

3.A. Continually improve collaborative IT steering structures to aid in the decision-making process.

IT services cannot possibly have global knowledge of the priorities of all areas of the college. For example, how best to leverage the available funding for A/V technology to provide the greatest impact for the college is not a decision that can be made by IT services. Faculty, staff and students must all be involved in the selection of IT products and services so that the best global decisions can be made for the college. Establishing formal governance structures which represent all of the constituencies and users is a necessary first step to global optimization of scarce resources and IT services needs to work to strengthen and empower IT steering committees.

3.B. Leverage relationships with vendors.

As funding for higher education IT transforms into a limited resource model, it is increasingly important to minimize hardware and software costs. IT services must actively seek to leverage vendor relationships both individually and as part of the larger SUNY and State purchasing pools to minimize expenses while maximizing software and hardware availability.

3.C. Support IT staff community service opportunities.

Our staff members have unique skills and abilities within the Oneonta community, and can support the community in ways others cannot. IT services will continue to support our staff if and when they choose to be involved in local community organizations.

Provide for a positive, collaborative and progressive IT work environment.

As the pace of IT development continues to accelerate, we need to continuously reinvest in staff development.
The deployment of new products, shifting priorities and new opportunities combined with the 24x7 nature of
IT operations can cause significant stress and anxiety, which IT Services will work to minimize.
Objectives within this goal...

4.A. Promote continuous IT staff development.

In order to provide our campus with the best IT services possible, IT staff members need to be up to date on technical skills and knowledge of the IT landscape. Many software products now operate on a three to six month development cycle and the rate of change in IT is only increasing. Keeping up to date is growing increasingly difficult and must be constantly addressed. As IT continues to shift from a technology-oriented to people-oriented endeavor, we must also continue to update and develop soft skills throughout the organization.

4.B. Actively collaborate with other IT organizations within SUNY.

As “systemness” and “shared services” become increasingly important cornerstones of IT operations across the system, our interaction with both other institutions and SUNY IT services will become increasingly important contributors to our success. We need to expand our contacts across all levels of SUNY, discuss ongoing projects and both seek and provide assistance to our colleagues as we transition to increased levels of common software, hardware and operational offerings.

4.C. Enhance our external reputation for IT innovation.

Our staff frequently produces new and innovative solutions for IT issues on our campus. Within the SUNY system, we are well known as an organization which regularly presents solutions that can be adapted to and adopted by many other campuses. We need to take our reputation for IT innovation to the national level and increase name recognition – although largely intangible, having a national reputation will attract a larger pool of applicants for vacant positions, increase collaboration with higher education institutions outside of the SUNY system and enhance vendor relationships by providing opportunities for beta testing and piloting innovative technology.

4.D. Improve IT staff work-life balance and workplace satisfaction.

Our services cannot be limited to the normal workday. To minimize interruptions of service, our staff frequently performs hardware and software maintenance during nighttime or on the weekends. Many of us are implicitly on call all day, every day to respond to service emergencies. Excess night and weekend work sometimes causes issues with work-life balance and workplace satisfaction, and IT services must strive to find appropriate mechanisms to ensure a productive and satisfying work experience for our staff.